Conflicts and communication: Instructional designer and subject matter experts developing interdisciplinary online healthcare content.

摘要

The shift from focusing on a single discipline to focusing on multiple disciplines is a challenge for instructional designers who are likely to encounter increased difficulties relating to subject matter experts who are accustomed to working within their individual content areas. This qualitative case study describes the communication conflicts experienced among an instructional designer and three graduate-level faculty members of a higher education institution that prepares students for healthcare professions. Different methods of data collection were utilized including direct observation, interviews, and document analysis as a means of corroborating the study's findings. The guiding research questions focused on determining the main sources of communication conflict experienced by the instructional designer and three subject matter experts, understanding how the instructional design team members handled conflict, and identifying the particular conflict resolution styles employed by the team members. Study findings were consistent with the literature on interpersonal conflict and the use of five conflict resolution styles---avoidance, competition, accommodation, compromise, and collaboration. Specifically, findings revealed 39 common conflicts experienced by the participants. Of the total 39 conflicts, 34 were related to content and 5 were relational in nature. The approach most commonly used by participants to handle conflict during four instructional design (ID) meetings was fractionation. During the first, third, and fourth ID meetings, participants employed the use of fractionation to deal with conflicts. Differentiation was the most common approach employed by participants to handle conflict during the second ID meeting.